Which is how she remains for the next two seasons - a woman with her own life that travels with the Doctor sometimes. As does River. As does Clara. This is unheard of in Doctor Who - the idea that the companion might have a life outside the Doctor. For all that Moffat gets stick for defining female characters in terms of the Doctor, we shouldn’t forget that he’s the one who finally came up with a credible response to the problems posed by Sarah Jane’s anguished “you were my life” in School Reunion. The Doctor isn't the life of any of his companions under Moffat.
I find this paragraph rather...ironic, I suppose.
This is why. tl;dr: we're told that Amy and River have this life outside the Doctor, but never actually shown it. Clara seems like she might be better in this regard, though as she's spent most of her first season primarily as a plot device (this is not a complaint, fyi) it's hard to say. Hopefully now that her whole thing is resolved we'll actually get to explore her character background some more.
And what’s the usual response to this? People who wanted more scenes of [Amy] in agony and suffering.
No, we just wanted to see what is an undeniably major (and terrible) event in Amy's life to actually be mentioned from time to time.
I don’t think there’s been a single leap forward in feminism in the series larger than what happens between The End of Time Part II (Oh look, the Doctor’s finally managed to marry off his last two companions) and Series Five.
What? While Martha and Mickey certainly qualify as Pair the Spares (THOUGH THE MORE I THINK ABOUT THOSE TWO AND THEIR PARALLELS THE MORE I LOVE THAT PAIRING NGL), how is that misogynistic? Same with Donna getting married, which was essentially a bookend to her entire arc?
I don't believe that Moffat's era is some terrible assault on feminism. I
do think Moffat himself is amazingly sexist and likely doesn't even realize it. ("There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands." whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttt????? are you actually for real sir). Mostly I just think that he's not that great a writer, tbh, and an even poorer showrunner. It shows in his female characters, who at first glance look like strong women who don't need no man, but then when you look properly you realize they're rather two-dimensional and constructed entirely of tropes.
To be clear, I really like both Amy and River, because they're good and they have this potential to be amazing. It's just that potential, imo, is never reached in the show, and I think it's because Moffat simply doesn't understand (how to write) women in a way that doesn't directly involve their relationship with a man (either the Doctor or Rory).
ALL THAT SAID, I have high hopes for Clara, who so far I love.
Oh, and I do agree with that article in one regard - Rory is fucking great and a stellar male character.